CHOR. Peleus, I see, draws near, his aged feet
With eager haste advancing.
PEL. You, and him
Who stands presiding o’er a murderous deed,
What means this uproar that disturbs the house,
I question, and what practices are these
Ye carry on unauthorized by law?
O Menelaus, stay thy furious hand,
And let not execution thus outstrip
All righteous judgment. O my friends, lead on;
For such a dread emergency appears
T’ admit of no delay. Could I regain
That youthful vigour which I erst enjoyed
As prosperous breezes aid the floating sails,
This captive would I favour. Say, what right
Have they to bind your hands, and drag along
You and your son? for like the bleating mother,
Led forth to slaughter with her lamb, you perish,
While I and your unwitting lord are absent.
AND. They, as thou seest, O venerable man,
Me and my son thus bear to instant death.
What shall I say to thee, whom I with speed
Not by one single messenger but thousands
Have sent for? sure thou, of the fatal strife
In these divided mansions, with his daughter,
To which I owe my ruin, must have heard:
And from the violated shrine of Thetis,
Who bore to thee a noble son, the goddess
Whom thou rever’st e’en now with brutal force
Me have they torn, nor judged my cause, nor wait
For absent Neoptolemus, but, knowing
That I and that this child who hath committed
No fault, are left alone and unprotected,
Would slay us both. But, O thou aged man,
Thus prostrate on my knees, to thee I sue,
And, though this hand must not presume to touch
Thy honoured beard, conjure thee by the gods,
Rescue us, or to thy eternal shame
Both he and I must miserably bleed.
PEL. My orders are that you those galling chains
Unbind and loose her hands, else will I make
The disobedient weep.
MEN. But I, your equal,
Who have much more authority o’er her,
Forbid them.
PEL. Com’st thou hither to direct
My household? is it not enough for thee
To rule thy Spartans?
MEN. Her I took at Troy.
PEL. She, to reward his valour, was bestowed
Upon my grandson.
MEN. Doth not all he owns,
To me, and what is mine, to him belong?
PEL. For honest purposes, but not for crimes
And murderous violence.
MEN. You ne’er shall take her
Out of my hands.
PEL. Thy head I with this sceptre
Will smite.
MEN. Draw near; if you presume to touch me,
Soon shall you rue such outrage.
PEL. O thou villain,
Sprung from a race of impious sires, what right
To be accounted an illustrious man,
And numbered with the truly brave, hast thou,
Who by a Phrygian wanderer wert deprived
Of thy fair consort, after thou hadst left
Thy house unbarred and destitute of guards,
As if thou in thy mansions hadst possessed
A virtuous dame, though she of all her sex
Was the most dissolute? nor if she would
Can any Spartan nymph be chaste? for wandering
From their own homes, distinguished by bare legs,
And zoneless vest, they with young men contend
In swiftness and in wrestling; I such customs
Hold in abhorrence. Is there any room
For wonder if the women prove unchaste
Whom thus you educate? thy Helen ought
To have proposed these questions, ere she left
Her native realm, regardless of thy love,
And by that youthful paramour seduced,
Wantonly fled into a foreign land.
Yet for her sake didst thou that numerous host
Of Greeks collect, and lead them to assail
The Phrygian ramparts. Thou that beauteous dame
Shouldst rather have despised, nor in her cause
Wielded the javelin, when thou found’st her worthless,
But suffered her in Ilion to remain,
And sent rich gifts to Paris on these terms,
That to thy house she never should return.
But thou, instead of suffering these just motives
To make their due impression on thy soul,
Full many valiant warriors hast destroyed,
Made th’ aged matron childless, and deprived
Of his illustrious sons the hoary sire.
Numbered with those who owe to thee thy ruin
Am wretched I: for like some evil genius
In thee do these indignant eyes behold
The murderer of Achilles: thou alone,
Save by the missile shaft, unwounded cam’st
From Ilion’s hostile shores; in burnished chests
Didst thou bear thither the same glittering arms
Which thou bear’st back again. Before he wedded,
I warned my grandson to form no connection
With thee, nor into these abodes admit
The brood of that adult’ress; for the daughters
Their mother emulate in deeds of shame.
Look well to this, ye suitors, and select
The damsel with maternal worth endued.
Then with what scorn didst thou thy brother treat,
Commanding him ’gainst reason to transgress,
And sacrifice his daughter. Thou such fears,
Lest thou that execrable wife shouldst lose,
Didst entertain. When thou hadst taken Troy,
This too I urge against thee, though thou hadst
Thy consort in thy power, thou didst not slay her,
But when her throbbing bosom thou beheld’st
Didst cast away thy sword, receive her kisses,
And soothe the fears of her who had betrayed thee.
O worthless miscreant, whom the Cyprian Queen
Hath thus debased! thou after this intrud’st
Into my grandson’s palace, in his absence
Committ’st these outrages, and basely slay’st
A miserable woman, and her child,
Thee and thy daughter who shall cause to weep
Though trebly illegitimate his birth.
Oft the parched heath, when duly tilled, exceeds
The richest soil, and greater instances
Of virtue are in many a bastard found
Than in the lawfully begotten race.
But take thy daughter hence. Far better is it
To form affinity and strictest friendship
With a poor man of worth, than him who joins
Iniquity with wealth: but as for thee,
Thou art a thing of nought.
CHOR. Among mankind,
Oft from a small beginning doth the tongue
Great strife occasion: but the wise beware
Of entering on a contest with their friend.
MEN. Why do we speak in such exalted terms
Of aged men, as if they were endued
With wisdom, though in former days supposed
By the whole Grecian race to judge aright?
When you, O Peleus, who derive your birth
From an illustrious sire, and with my house
So nearly are connected, hold a language
Disgraceful to yourself, and slander me,
For a barbarian dame, whom from this land
You ought to banish far beyond the Nile,
Beyond the Phasis, and applaud my vengeance;
Because she comes from Asiatic shores,
Where many valiant Grecian chiefs lie slain.
And hath in part been guilty of the blood
Of your famed son; for Paris, by whose shaft,
Transpierced, Achilles perished, was the brother,
And she the wife of Hector: yet you enter
The same abode with her, the genial board
With her partake, allow her to bring forth
Under your roofs an execrable brood.
These mischiefs both to you and me, old man,
Foreseeing, have I snatched her from your hands
With a design to kill her. But, O say,
(For there is nought of meanness in our holding
This conference), if my daughter bear no child,
And she have sons, will you appoint them lords
Of this your Phthian land? shall they who spring
From a barbarian race, o’er Greeks bear rule?
Am I, because I hate injustice, void
Of understanding, and are you discreet?
Reflect on this; had you bestowed your daughter
On any citizen, were she thus treated,
Would you sit down and bear her wrongs in silence?
I deem you would not. Why then with such harshness
Speak you in favour of a foreign dame
Against your nearest friends? as great a right
To vengeance as her husband, hath the wife
Whom her lord injures: for while he whose doors
An unchaste consort enters, in his hands
Hath power to right himself, a woman’s strength
Lies only in her parents and her friends.
My daughter, therefore, am I bound to aid:
You show the marks of age: for while you talk
Of that famed war I waged, you more befriend me
Than if you had been silent. Deep in woe
Was Helen plunged, not by her own consent
But by the gods: and this event hath proved
To Greece most advantageous, for its sons
Who knew not how till then to wield the spear,
Grew valiant. From experience, best of tutors,
Men gather all the knowledge they possess.
But when I saw my consort, in forbearing
To take away her life, I acted wisely:
And would that you had done like me, nor slain
Your brother Phocus; this to you I speak
Through mere benevolence, and not in wrath:
But if resentment o’er your soul usurp
An empire, such intemperance of the tongue
Will be in you more shameful, while my wishes
I by a prudent forethought shall attain.
CHOR. Now both desist (for this were better far)
From such unprofitable strife of words,
O ye will both offend.
PEL. Ah me! through Greece
What mischievous opinions have prevailed!
When with the spoils of vanquished foes, the host
A trophy rear, they think not how ’twas gained
By those brave soldiers who endure the toil
Of battle, while their general bears away
All the renown: though he was only one
Who stood ’midst thousands brandishing his spear,
Nor any single combatant surpassed,
He gains a larger portion of applause.
The venerable rulers of a city,
Placed in exalted stations, yet devoid
Of any real merit, overlook
The populace, though many in the crowd
Of their inferiors are more wise than they,
If haply courage and an honest zeal
Unite to place them in the public view.
Thou and thy brother thus are swollen with pride,
From having led those troops to conquer Troy,
And triumph in the sufferings of your friends.
But henceforth will I teach thee not to look
On Paris, Ida’s shepherd, as a foe,
More terrible than Peleus. If with speed
Thou quit not these abodes, and take away
Thy childless daughter, my indignant grandson,
By her dishevelled hair around the palace
Will drag this barren dame, who stung with envy,
Cannot endure the fruitful mother’s joys.
But, if she prove so luckless as to bare
No issue, ought she therefore to deprive us
Of our posterity? Begone, ye slaves,
That I may see who dares obstruct my loosing
Her hands. Rise up: though trembling with old age,
Your chains can I unbind. O worthless man,
Hast thou thus galled her hands? didst thou suppose
Thou held’st a bull or lion in the snare?
Or didst thou shudder lest she should snatch up
A sword, and wreak just vengeance on thy head?
Come hither to these sheltering arms, my child,
Unbind thy mother’s chains; in Phthia, thee
I’ll educate, to them a bitter foe.
Should Sparta’s sons by the protended spear
Obtain no fame, nor in th’ embattled field
Their prowess signalize, be well assured
Ye have no other merit.
CHOR. Old men talk
With freedom, and their vehemence of soul
Is hard to be restrained.
MEN. Extremely prone
Are you to slander; much against my will
I came to Phthia, and am here resolved
That I will neither do nor suffer aught
Disgraceful: but to my own home with speed
Am I returning, and have little time
In vain debates to lavish: for a city
Not far from Sparta’s gates and erst a friend
Is waging war against us: I would lead
My hardy squadrons forth t’ assail the foe,
And utterly subdue them. To my wish
Soon as this great affair I shall have settled,
Hither will I return, and face to face,
When I my reasons to my son-in-law
Have in the clearest terms proposed, will hear
What he can urge; and if he punish her,
And for the future courteously to me
Demean himself, from me he in return
Shall meet with courtesy; but if he rage,
He of my rage the dire effects shall feel:
For still such treatment as his deeds deserve
Shall he experience. But I am not hurt
By these injurious words of yours; for like
Some disembodied ghost, you have a voice,
Although you are not able to do aught
But merely speak.
[_Exit_ MENELAUS.
PEL. Lead on, my boy; here take
Thy station under these protecting arms;
And thou too, O thou miserable dame,
Driven hither by the furious storm; at length
Into a quiet haven are ye come.
AND. On thee and thy descendants may the gods
Shower every blessing, venerable man,
For having saved this child, and wretched me;
Yet O beware, lest in some lonely spot
They suddenly assail us, and by force
Drag me away, perceiving thou art old,
That I am a weak woman, and my son
Is but an infant: all precautions use,
Else we, who have escaped them, may again
Be caught.
PEL. Forbear to utter, in such language
As this, the dictates of a woman’s fear.
Advance, who dares to touch you? he shall weep.
For with the blessing of th’ immortal gods,
And by unnumbered troops of valiant horse,
And infantry supported, I bear rule
Over the Phthian land. I am robust,
Nor, as you deem, impaired by palsied age.
Were I, opposed in battle, but to look
On such a man as this, old as I am,
An easy conquest soon should I obtain.
Superior is the veteran, if with courage
Inspired, to many youths: for what avails
A vigorous body with a coward’s heart?
[_Exeunt_ PELEUS, ANDROMACHE, _and_ MOLOSSUS.